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- All HBS Web (102)
- Faculty Publications (41)
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- 03 Oct 2023
- HBS Case
Layoffs Can Be Bad Business: 5 Strategies to Consider Before Cutting Staff
unavoidable. In such situations, companies can mitigate the hidden costs if executives develop specific policies to follow in downsizing and make everyone aware of the company’s approach and its commitment to acting fairly for all...
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- 05 Feb 2024
- Research & Ideas
The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding
on middle management During the 1980s and 1990s, middle managers became prime targets of large-scale downsizing at the behest of shareholder activists—yet the ranks of middle managers never really declined. Zhang’s data helps explain why....
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by Ben Rand
- Research Summary
The New Social Contract: Contractors, Firms, and Agencies
The emergence of a 'new social contract' linking employees and organizations - perhaps most notable for the absence of a promise of lifelong job security - has been widely remarked. A related trend, less noted but potentially important, has been the emergence of a...
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- Research Summary
Papers in progress
- “The ‘Carbon Club’: Oil Companies, Climate Change & the Shaping of Public Policy”. Conspiracy theories abound, but the roles of the major oil companies in influencing public policy on climate change remain largely obscure. This... View Details
- 16 Jun 2008
- Research & Ideas
Seven Tips for Managing Price Increases
engineer products and packaging to hit key retail price points. This may mean downsizing package sizes, something the candy industry always does in response to inflation. 4. Use Promotions. If you've always passed through raw material...
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by John Quelch
- 12 Dec 2023
- Research & Ideas
COVID Tested Global Supply Chains. Here’s How They’ve Adapted
diversification Companies are also starting to recognize—and rediscover, as in the case of Intel Corp.—the benefits of diversifying their global production and supply chains, Alfaro says. The chip manufacturer downsized its plant in Costa...
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by Scott Van Voorhis
- 01 Oct 2001
- Research & Ideas
How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company
strategic focus from a declining labor-intensive business to a more promising but less labor-intensive business. Ultimately this shift may necessitate downsizing the workforce. However, if the firm's current business is still profitable,...
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by Stuart C. Gilson
- 28 Jun 2004
- Research & Ideas
How to Avoid a Price Increase
cases of downsizing price increases, firms have chosen to maintain the sticker price of a product, but have reduced the quantity contained in that product. Thus, a tin of coffee stays $2.99, but shrinks from 14.5 ounces to 13 ounces, for...
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by Manda Salls
- 09 May 2017
- What Do You Think?
Should Management Be Primarily Responsible to Shareholders?
increase short-term profitability (desired by short-term investors who make up an increasing share of the total) over long-term health of the corporation. This includes imprudent downsizing of organizations, spending reduction for...
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by James Heskett
- 15 Dec 2021
- Research & Ideas
The 10 Most Popular Articles of 2021
if employees have the psychological safety to reflect on these close calls, says research by Amy C. Edmondson, Olivia Jung, and colleagues. 5. How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves Aggressive downsizing at...
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by Danielle Kost
- 24 Jan 2005
- Research & Ideas
Rethinking Activity-Based Costing
from making unnecessary new investments in capacity. For example, the vice president of operations at Lewis-Goetz, a hose and belt fabricator based in Pittsburgh, saw from his time-driven ABC model that one of his plants was operating at only 27 percent of capacity....
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by Robert S. Kaplan & Steven R. Anderson
- 17 Jun 2011
- HBS Case
KFC’s Explosive Growth in China
was Su's early decision to downsize his own career. Originally hired to cover the northern Asia-Pacific region, he departed from the usual managerial growth path of taking on larger geographic assignments and instead argued that he should...
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- 01 Mar 2021
- What Do You Think?
What Does Remote Work Mean for Middle Managers?
defensive for years. Organizations have been delayering—eliminating middle management jobs—to try to be more agile, with faster decision making and execution. Downsizing in the name of economies of scale has hit middle management hard....
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by James Heskett
- 09 Jul 2008
- Research & Ideas
Starbucks’ Lessons for Premium Brands
structure) or you have to cut distribution to restore the exclusivity of the brand. Expect the 600 store closings to be the first of a series of downsizing announcements. Sometimes, in the world of marketing, less is more. Schultz sought,...
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- 10 Oct 2011
- Research & Ideas
Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink
phones, computers/tablets, and investment advice are three such categories today. The Future Of Retail Clearly, this is a new world for store retailers. To compete with online competitors, retailers will need to be agile both in eliminating or View Details
- 14 Dec 1999
- Research & Ideas
From Spare Change to Real Change: The Social Sector as a Beta Site for Business Innovation
ideas for systemic change that private enterprises are uniquely qualified to contribute. As government downsizes and the public expects the private sector to step in to help solve community problems, it is important that businesses...
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by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
- 04 Nov 2002
- What Do You Think?
What’s Best for the Corporate Brain?
needed to develop intellectual capital and things like continuity of employment, organization structure, and incentives equivalent to the synapses by which information is exchanged and knowledge created, how many (if any) cells are destroyed in the "corporate...
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by James Heskett
- 14 Mar 2007
- Op-Ed
Government’s Misguided Probe of Private Equity
and Forstmann Little & Co., have dramatically downsized or announced their intention to cease operations after experiencing investment missteps and succession problems. Meanwhile, new organizations have amassed enormous sums of...
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- 29 Jun 2009
- Sharpening Your Skills
Sharpening Your Skills: Leading Change
crisis that will minimize damage from restructuring and downsizing and maintain employee dignity and commitment. My Organization Doesn't Have The Fire It Needs. What Can I Do? Book Excerpt: A Sense of Urgency Urgency can be a positive...
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by Staff
- 28 Oct 2014
- First Look
First Look: October 28
disruptive to its drug development efforts and delay new drugs coming to market. UK politicians expressed concerns over downsizing and job losses in the economically important pharmaceutical sector. The case allows readers to explore who...
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Carmen Nobel